Comparative Study of Imitation between Plato and AristotleAbstract: As the greatest philosophers in ancient Greece, Plato and Aristotle all have distinct opinions on poetry about imitation. This paper mainly discusses the differences of their opinions from the angles of theology, epistemology and morality, and shortly introduces the historical significance of Aristotles Poetics. Key words: Plato; Aristotle; Imitation; PoeticsI. A Brief IntroductionPlato and Aristotle both played very important roles in the Art history of ancient Greece. The questions they discussed about poetry formed the original foundation of the western poetics theoretical system. Their rich poetic aesthetic thoughts in the study of literary theory have always been the focus of academic discussion. Platos idea of poetry was mainly expressed in his famous workRepublic. He mainly focused on three themes: sources of inspiration of the poets, imitation in poems and the utility of poems. His opinion related a lot to his philosophical thoughts. And he was the first one who dissertated on the theory of poem from the angles of aesthetics and education. Aristotle has written Poetics to discuss the theory of poetry. As he was the student of Plato, he inherited and carried forward the theory of Plato on poetry. And Poetics became the classic in the history of Western literary theory. Overall, the two hold very different attitudes towards poets and poetry, as a result of their different thoughts. This paper mainly focuses on the comparison of Plato and Aristotles theories of imitation on poetry, and explains the historical significance of Aristotles Poetics at the last part.II. Comparison of the theory of Imitation between Plato and AristotleAlthough Plato and Aristotle were teacher and student, they disagreed profoundly about the value of poetry in human society. However, their different notions of poetry were based upon the same basic assumption: poetry is a form of imitation. Whats more, the two both admitted that the poets had the ability to have significant impact on others. It was the different opinions between them about what the original of the imitation was, on what extent could the imitations approach the truth and what was the infection of the imitations cause the different theories and attitudes towards poetry between Plato and Aristotle.1. Differences in the Theology AngleIn Platos view, poems come from God. It is God who actually created the best poems by inspiring and guiding the poets and let them sing the poems out in an obsessed state. Without Gods help, poets themselves are only mediocrities and they could hardly have any successes in art. In Platos mind, the God is the dominator and the poets are only the mouthpieces. Poets do not have too much initiative or freedom when they create poems. What is even worse, it is always the case that poets imitate Gods spirit in an inappropriate way, and they cannot approach the truth through the poems. By denying the poems are the creation of the poets, Plato puts poets in a lesser way. In addition, Plato considers that, when poets make poem, they do not actually need any skills. What they need was only enthusiasm. Writing poems is an action which cannot be explained in a rational way. According to his theory, poets do not need to spend time on improving their skills of creating poems, and this actually discourages poems from receiving further educations and developing themselves.Different from Plato, Aristotle consider the poems of the creation of the poets themselves, instead of the God. He thinks that imitation is the nature of humans from childhood. Creating poems, as a way to imitate, is also a natural need of human beings. So poets are by no means secondary in the creation of poems, they are the true producer rather than the deputies. And from the process of creating poems, the poets would feel happy. This should not be condemned, and the poets have the right to get knowledge during the process of writing poems and get the reasonable status. What is more, as many other work, creating poem can be explained in a rational way. The poets need professional knowledge, and they can improve their skills by practicing step by step. Actually, in Poetics he talks about many principles and skills about creating a poem.2. Differences in the Epistemology AngleIn Platos opinion, the world can be divided into three layers: the world of idea, the world of reality and the world of imitation. Truth only exist in the first layerwhich is composed by all the concepts. For Plato, concepts are even more real than concrete objects, which are all the images in the second layer, imitating the ideal ones in the first layer. And as for the things in the third layer, the imitationsincluding all art forms, they have all removes too far from the truth already, because they are the “imitation” of the “imitation”. As a result, they can hardly reflect the truth and should be highly suspected. And poetry, o